For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, preparative separation/purification systems utilizing liquid chromatographs are used to collect samples of a variety of chemically synthesized compounds in order to store those samples in a library or analyze them in more detail. Conventional examples of the preparative separation/purification system are disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2.
In these conventional apparatuses, target components (compounds) in a sample solution are temporally separated by a liquid chromatograph. The separated target components are then respectively introduced into different trap columns and temporarily captured therein. Subsequently, a solvent is supplied into each trap column to quickly elute the component from the trap column and collect it in a container. Thus, a plurality of solutions each containing one target component at a high concentration are respectively collected in a plurality of containers. These separately collected solutions are then subjected to a vaporizing and drying process to remove the solvent and collect the target components in solid forms. The vaporizing and drying process normally includes heating the collected solutions or centrifuging them under a vacuum.
According to the aforementioned conventional method, however, a single vaporizing and drying process requires a long period of time of, for example, several hours to one day. In the pharmaceutical industry, various efforts have been made to improve the efficiency of searching for a large number of synthetic compounds for medicinal compounds; for example, the analysis time has been reduced by using faster analysis apparatuses or optimizing the analytical methods. Reducing the time required for the vaporizing and drying process is a critical issue since this process consumes, within the entire process, the longest period of time.
Performing an additional process, such as a vacuum centrifugal separation, further lowers the efficiency since it requires an additional task, such as setting an eluate collected by the preparative separation into a vacuum centrifugal separator.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H2-122260
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-149217